Do you often feel that you’re sabotaging your best efforts to achieve your goals? Maybe you say one thing but consistently do the opposite. Or, when you’re finally about to realise your objectives, you open your mouth and put your foot right in it!

If we think of ourselves as one persona – a single identity – it doesn’t make sense that we don’t or won’t do what we set out to do. But if we think of ourselves as a team, where the team members are working to different agendas, the reasons we don’t achieve what we want becomes easier to understand.

For many years I had problems in achieving my goals. I gave them great thought, wrote them down, made them SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time related) and referred to them often. My conscious mind was brilliant at goal setting but, somehow, I never seemed to get there.

Little did I know that there was another Jackie calling some, in fact most, of the shots: my subconscious mind. The Jackie wasn’t a gremlin, naysayer or party pooper. This Jackie knew a lot more than my conscious mind such as what my beliefs were and had a direct line to my higher self to understand my purpose for this life. And she was working within those boundaries.

Not only was conscious Jackie disregarding subconscious Jackie but the two spoke completely different languages. Considering these two were my Life Team it was hardly surprising that I wasn’t going where I thought I wanted to go!

So I began team building. I ensured that both parties had input by connecting my subconscious, conscious and higher self daily through meditation and prayer. This allowed my conscious mind to understand how my subconscious was trying to protect me and how my higher self was trying to guide me. My conscious mind can also pick up redundant beliefs in my subconscious that are limiting and work on replacing them. When I set goals now I do so in writing but also in pictures, symbols and with emotion as this is the
language of all our subconscious minds.

I am very proud of my Team Jackie. We pull together to reach our objectives. Of course, like all team building, it’s an ongoing process but it now feels less like self sabotage and more like being part of a protective team. And that’s good.

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You’re starting a business or project, planning your wedding or another special occasion and the big question is ‘When?’

When will it happen?

What date should I choose?

In a lot of cases you’ll let external circumstances dictate. But, you’ll ensure a much more successful outcome if you take into account the energy of the day and how it interacts with your inherent energy.

This is what Date Selection in Feng Shui is all about. You see, Feng Shui not only considers the energy of a location, it also considers the energy of the current time and how you interact with both the space you’re in and the time you’re in.

Imagine you need to sign an important contract. Would you want to do it on a day when your energy increases the chances of mis-communication?

Or perhaps you’re starting a business. One day your energy is all about getting noticed and another day your energy is quiet and introspective. Which day would you choose to launch your business?

Maybe you’ve been invited for a job interview and are given a selection of dates. Wouldn’t you want to attend on a day when your energy is focussed and can help you portray yourself in the best positive light?

We’ve all experienced days when things just don’t seem to go right and other days when we feel as if we could achieve anything. There doesn’t seem to be any order or reason behind which type of day we’re going to have when we wake up. But, if you look closely, there is order in this apparent chaos. Life goes in cycles and so does energy flow. And once you understand the pattern you can use it to your advantage checking years, months, specific days or even drill down to hours.

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Some of you may remember Catweazle. For others he may have passed you by or perhaps you weren’t around then.

Curiosity doesn't kill the Catweazle

Catweazle was the title character in a 1970s children’s TV programme in the UK. He was a wizard that lived in the 11th century and managed to transport himself through time to the 20th century – the 1970s. As you can imagine his new world would have seemed truly magical and amazing when seen through 11th century eyes.

I loved Catweazle: he questioned everything, took everything apart and broke a lot of things to. Needless to say the recent announcement that he is going to experience a movie remake caught my eye.

The original scriptwriter, Richard Carpenter, will provide the screenplay for the new movie. His motivation for creating the original TV series was ‘concern that children seemed to accept technology with barely a thought about how it worked and (I) thought that a character who saw modern scientific advances like electricity and motorcars with a fresh questioning eye would help to interest children in science.’

I started to wonder about the huge technological advances that have been made since the original series in the 1970s: our world now would seem truly magical to someone picked up from that decade and transported here. Yet we take all this technology for granted: being in constant contact with people; having information at our fingertips 24/7; portraying our lives on social media for all to see and living on credit in a virtual money world.

All these things we accept without understanding not only how these systems work but whether they are a good way to live our lives. Slowly, insipidly, we are giving over control of our lives and ‘computer says no’ is no longer a funny catchphrase from Little Britain but a real situation.

If all the world’s computer systems crashed or were hacked it is said that our world would stop functioning. And why? Because we don’t understand the computerised lives that we have built for ourselves and we’ve become so dependent on living through technology that we wouldn’t initially know what to do if it went wrong. Of course, we’d rediscover how to live our lives in a simpler way, but at what cost?

You might think that I’m against technology, harking back to a simpler life and say it’s my age or whatever. I love technology. I love the internet and the potential it offers. But, like everything, technology offers both advantages and disadvantages. Rather than embracing technology completely it might be worth questioning it first. Do a Catweazle: break it down, understand how it works and then just take the best bits for you. That way you stay in control (somewhat!)

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Like most people, I do what I do because I need to earn an income. My expenses are not excessive, I live in a small house, my monthly bills aren’t huge in comparison to others and I don’t particularly like shopping for things I don’t want. I don’t have too many possessions and don’t feel the need to add to them. However, when it comes to setting my financial goals I tend to aim big.

We’re coming to that time of year where we start to think about our goals and what we want to achieve for the coming year and I’ve been questioning why my financial goals are so obviously incongruent with my needs.

Typical goal setting techniques say goals need to reach certain criteria in order for them to be successful. The most popular system is described by the acronym ‘SMART’: goals should be Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time based.

Metaphysical teachings as found in the Law of Attraction and The Secret also tell us that we should visualise our goals and attach an emotion to them. Emotion is the catalyst between the thought and the forming of the physical reality.

As I believe that we create our own reality this makes sense. However it’s important to differentiate between emotions: do you want to achieve your goal because you’re moving towards a situation or because you’re running away from something?

Now, there are many things I would like to do if I had more money. But when I analyse the emotion that my goal is based on it isn’t because I want to achieve something (although I would). It isn’t because I want to help people (although I would). It isn’t even because I want to never have to worry about money again (although that would be nice too).

No, the real feeling behind my financial goal is fear based. Most people will assume that means I’m frightened of being poor or worried about what people will think of me but it isn’t about either of those. The fear based emotion I have is my lack of trust in my fellow human beings. This gets stronger as I get older and I wonder how independent and strong I’ll be in 20, 30 or 40 years time.

You see, with money I can buy care and support if I need it. Without it I’ll become invisible.

Until recently I would have scoffed at those last two paragraphs. I like to be optimistic. I like to trust people and be non-judgemental. I look for the good rather than the bad. I like to be open and honest in my relationships and communication with people. There are some wonderful people in this world but recently I am coming across many more who identify only with their egos and forget that we’re all in this thing called Life together.

So, I have my emotion to work on because I think that any goal based on a negative feeling is not going to succeed. And, if you haven’t achieved your goals maybe you should go beyond the practicalities and look at exactly why you want what you want.

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There are lots of ways to describe our life when things aren’t going smoothly. But what causes the ups and downs we all experience? Do we make our own problems or are the causes external and, if so, can we harness them to make our life easier?

The Chinese believe that we can. So strong is their belief that many people would not dream of buying a house or locating a business without the services of a Feng Shui master or Geomancer.

Feng Shui literally means ‘Wind and Water’ but the term describes so much more. It encompasses all that is and, when we look at everything in our world we realise that it is all energy. You are energy, I am energy and so is this earth that we live on. The Chinese call it ‘Chi’.

In Feng Shui energy rises from the earth towards the heavens and is Yin in nature. Yin is feminine, dark, soft, intuitive and many other things. Energy also descends from the heavens and is Yang in nature. Yang is masculine, light, hard, physical and also many other things. As these two opposing forces meet they jostle, striving for harmony. The movement never stops and this is what gives energy its changeable nature.

You may be familiar with the Yin/Yang symbol which represents this movement and the dots remind us that everything is made up of both Yang and Yin energies, constantly shifting.

Whilst we can characterise energy as either Yin or Yang, there are a lot of in-between stages as the two merge. These are described as the Five Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.

The five element 'characters' of Yin and Yang energy

Wood energy is growing Yang and gathering strength like a tree growing up towards the sky. Fire energy reaches its peak and is extremely Yang. Earth energy has very little movement but is stable and grounded. Metal energy constricts reducing its Yang energy, looking inwards towards Yin. Water energy is yielding, flexible and very Yin before the cycle moves on again to Wood energy.

Believe it or not, everything can be classified within the Five Elements and it is the basis of Feng Shui.

In practical terms, a Feng Shui consultant will want to see that you have good support and an adequate supply of balanced energy in terms and Yin and Yang. This is known as Form School, traditionally applied to your external environment but equally valid indoors for your bedroom and if you work from home.

The orientation of your home or work place dictates the nature of the energy that is ‘feeding’ the building through its doors and windows. Known as Compass School, orientation can give a strong indication of the character of the building being assessed.

Also, we have to consider you. Your energy will interact with the energy of your home and provide an almost unique outcome.

And finally, a Feng Shui consultant will also consider timing. As Yin and Yang continue their dance for harmony so the nature of energy changes with time.

Together this information gives a complete picture of the type of life somebody is living and, if it needs improving there are many ways to bring about positive changes.

So, whilst we are all ultimately responsible for our lives, doesn’t it make sense to understand our environment and live in the flow?

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What difference would it make to your life if you felt healthy, happy and creative?

Have you tried everything you know to make improvements?

Maybe you should look elsewhere. Maybe you should look down.

The term ‘Geopathic Stress’ is used to describe areas of the land where the earth’s electromagnetic field is disrupted and so vibrates at a different frequency.

You might ask what that has to do with your employees. Well, quite a lot if you employ humans!

Throughout our evolution we humans have learnt to live in harmony with the earth and our electrical bodies resonate. So, if that frequency is disrupted through such things as underground water, fault lines or caverns it has an effect on us if we are stood or sat over it for any length of time. The effect can be individual and also quite subtle.

In the early twentieth century one of the first serious studies on geopathic stress was carried out by German scientist Gustav Freiherr Von Pohl. The study involved the houses of 58 people who had died from cancer and concluded that all had been sleeping over an area of geopathic stress. We sleep for an average of 7 to 8 hours a day. The same amount of time that we may be sat at a desk in an office. Therefore it’s reasonable to assume that working in an area of geopathic stress can be just as detrimental to our health as sleeping in an area of geopathic stress.

Since then many studies have been carried out and, in certain countries, buildings are not allowed to be erected unless the area has been dowsed for geopathic stress. Unfortunately this doesn’t happen in the UK.

So why does geopathic stress affect us in this way? Because our bodies work optimally when we resonate with the earth’s natural vibrations, any distortion will distort the way our bodies work. And when you think about it, any ‘dis-ease’ is really a manifestation that our bodies are not working properly.

These changes can affect how our brain works and communicates with our nervous system, our thought processes and they can overload our immune system. However, everybody exposed to geopathic stress will react differently and there are many other factors to consider such as natural constitution and lifestyle.

What geopathic stress tends to do is tip the balance or stack the odds against health. It also has a cumulative effect so the more time spent in a geopathically stressed area and the frequency increases, the more the balance is tipped towards ill health.

Cancer has been mentioned but there are other ways it can affect such as: poor sleep; headaches; depression and mood swings; fertility problems and miscarriages and behavioural problems. So, it’s well worth checking your office or work location for geopathic stress because there are solutions available.

I’ll ask you again. What difference would it make to your life if everyone who worked for you was healthy, happy and creative?

This Feng Shui information is general for everybody. However, there are deeper levels of Feng Shui which take into account you and your specific business or home environment.

If you would like to find out more about living in harmony with your environment, and using energy to your advantage, contact Jackie Notman on 07920 461574 or through her website www.fs168.co.uk

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If I was some fantastic opportunity on my way to you would you make it easy for me to visit? Would the door bell work or would there be a nice shiny bright knocker for me to rat-a-tat-tat and get your attention?

And if you did hear me and opened the door would it screech and moan like something from an old horror movie and scare me away?

What would I see when you opened the door? A bright welcoming place saying ‘come on in’ or a dark and depressing space that says ‘stay away’?

It seems silly to think that the entrance to our house in any way affects our fortunes in this life. But your front door is the mouth that feeds energy into your home. Just as you welcome your visitors so you welcome energy into your home and your life.

If your doorbell works, your door opens easily and the interior is bright and welcoming then visitors are happy to arrive. So too is energy: good energy.

I used to sell Remembrance Poppies door to door. It was usually on a dark November evening and invariably cold. But it was always wonderful to have a door opened with light and heat spilling out together with the smell of delicious food cooking. Those houses were always nice to go to but not so the dark, unkempt ones: I often expected a flash of thunder and eerie music as a door slowly squealed open.

What does your front door say about you?

However, the entrance to your domain is not all about attracting energy. It’s what your home says about you. An unwelcoming home says ‘I can’t be bothered’; ‘I don’t want to see anyone’; ‘I don’t care’ or ‘I’m not worth it’. Whether you believe that or not, it’s the message you’re giving out. And it may just be the reason why your life isn’t as you want it to be.

This Feng Shui information is general for everybody. However, there are deeper levels of Feng Shui which take into account you and your specific business or home environment.

If you would like to find out more about living in harmony with your environment, and using energy to your advantage, contact Jackie Notman on 07920 461574 or through her website www.fs168.co.uk

WANT TO PUBLISH THIS ARTICLE? You have permission to publish this article as long as the tagline (above) with links is included and no changes are made to the article. A courtesy copy of your publication or link would be appreciated.